Disney is helping fans travel to a galaxy far, far away, but maybe only for only a small window of time.
On May 31, Disneyland’s newest land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, will open to the public. Or rather, it will open to a select group of people, and only for a four hours at a time.
In order to visit the land, guests must make reservations ahead of time. While fans were initially thrilled to know that they’d have a guaranteed slot, the excitement faded once it was revealed that they’d only have a four-hour window to explore this new part of the park. Guests staying at one of Disneyland’s hotels will be supplied with one-time slot regardless of how many days they’re staying; other parkgoers will be able to book a spot online starting May 2.
Galaxy’s Edge will be the largest expansion to the park since it opened, and it’s expected to draw massive crowds. Disney has been preparing for the rush by expanding walkways, removing smoking areas and even providing bathroom passes while guests wait on line. A representative for Disneyland confirmed the four-hour limit is an attempt to prevent overly long lines and congestion.
Another factor that will limit guests’ experiences is that only one of the land’s major rides, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, will be operational on opening day. The second experience, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, won’t be open until later this year. Several eateries and shops will also be open, along with a cantina.
Some guests have also complained of receiving emails containing incorrect information, The Los Angeles Times reported. According to social media users, several hotel guests were provided time slots on days before or after their visit to the land. Some even noted that they were given a time slot before the land was set to open. However, the LA Times reported that Disney had acknowledged the issues, and that they were being fixed.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open May 31, 2019, at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. Source: Walt Disney Co.
Walt Disney Co.’s three hotels at Disneyland are selling out, with only $763-a-night rooms left for the May 31 opening day of the new Star Wars land.
In a first for Disney parks, the company is requiring reservations to enter Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge from opening day until June 23. Guests at the company’s hotels in Anaheim, California, will be guaranteed entry at a certain time. Disneyland.com will begin taking reservations for nonhotel guests at 10 a.m. Pacific time on May 2, the company said Monday.
Rooms that sleep up to five were available for $763 a night at the higher-end Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. No rooms were listed as available for opening day at the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier Hotel. Spots at all three hotels were still available later that weekend for prices starting at $561.
Some hotel guests complained on Twitter that the company got the date or time wrong for their Star Wars reservations. The company said it’s working to solve the problems.
Disney plans to open Star Wars lands, its largest theme-park additions, at the original Disneyland park next month and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, on Aug. 29. The 14-acre lands include a ride on the Millennium Falcon space ship and a chance to immerse oneself in Star Wars imagery right down to the blue Bantha milk served at Oga’s Cantina.
Disney is taking steps to prevent scalping. Reservations will be void if transferred or sold, the Burbank, California-based company said. Guests over age 18 must show ID that matches their reservation.
It’s also taking steps to manage the crowds. A company fact sheet said guests in queues will have access to snacks, restrooms and cast interactions while waiting. The company has added new parking facilities with 7,500 spots, widened walkways and lowered curbs to accommodate the added guests.
An heir to the Walt Disney fortune has launched a scathing attack on the “insane” $US65.6 million ($91 million) pay package claimed by the company’s CEO, which she says could have been used to fund a 15-per-cent pay rise for all Disneyland employees.
Key points:
Abigail Disney said CEO Bob Iger earned more than 1,000 times that of the average Disneyland employee
High-level executives would have to forego buying a “third home” if their bonuses were redistributed, she said
Disney said it had made historic investments to expand the earning potential of its employees
Abigail Disney, an Emmy-award-winning documentarian and granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy Disney, took to Twitter to deliver a searing assessment of chief executive Bob Iger’s salary, which is reported to have increased by 80 per cent from 2017.
While lauding Mr Iger as a “brilliant” leader who “most certainly” deserved a bonus, she said it was “insane” the head of the company earned more than 1,000 times that of the average Disney employee.
“There are just over 200K employees at Disney. If you took half that 65 M bonus… I am quite certain you could move significant resources down the line to more evenly share in the great success,” she wrote.
“What difference would it make in the quality of life for those that gave up half their bonus? None. Zero.
“Maybe they can’t afford a third home. Or another boat. I’m not being facetious here. That’s the kind of sacrifice we’d be talking about for high level execs.”
The tweets were in response to a “humane capitalism” speech delivered last week, in which Ms Disney criticised the “corrosive effect” large pay deals had on society.
The heiress, who is also a member of the activist organisation Patriotic Millionaires, which advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy, told the Fast Company Impact Council some Disneyland employees were struggling to pay for essential needs like medicine.
“When he [Bob Iger] got his bonus last year, I did the math and I figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15-per-cent raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland and still walked away with $10 million,” she said.
“So there’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into the class of people who… have too much money. There is such a thing.”
They said the company had made, “historic investments to expand the earning potential and upward mobility of our workers”.
“Implementing a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland that’s double the federal minimum wage,” a spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian.
“And committing up to $150m for a groundbreaking education initiative that gives our hourly employees the opportunity to obtain a college or vocational degree completely free of charge.”
Mr Iger is yet to respond to the comments.
Ms Disney, who claims to have donated about $70 million over the past 30 years, has been outspoken in her opposition to wealth inequality — a position she said was framed by her upbringing.
“It [money] creates this notion that you’re a little bit better than they are,” she told The Cut in March.
“There are people walking around with substantial wealth who think that they have it because they’re better.
“It’s fundamental to remember that you’re just a member of the human race, like everybody else, and there’s nothing about your money that makes you better than anyone else.”
Walt Disney World is opening up a Beauty and the Beast-themed bar and lounge
The happiest place on the earth just got a whole lot happier. Disney World is opening up a Beauty and the Beast-themed bar and lounge this fall, which will definitely make you want to be their guest (sorry not sorry). There will be four separate spaces and each one sounds more magical than the next.
The bar and lounge will be located in the Grand Floridian Hotel and the folks over at Disney promise that the new digs will “put our service to the test and share a tale as old as time.”
The bar will feature a large gold chandelier styled after Belle’s dress and the Beast’s rose. Head to the library and you’ll be treated to classical baroque designs, french furnishings, and “hints of the Beast’s friends.” There’s also the Garden Room, inspired by the enchanted forest, and the Outdoor Room, which will “evoke the romance of Beast’s garden terrace.”
Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect:
IMAGE VIA DISNEY PARKS BLOG
If you can’t wait until the fall to get your Belle on, there’s another Beauty and the Beast restaurant in Disney World to keep you fully occupied. It’s called Be Our Guest – because, natch – and is located inside the Beast’s castle. You can dine on grilled strip steak with garlic-herb butter, pan-seared salmon, and triple chocolate cupcakes. There’s grey stuff on the menu as well, which I’m sure will be just delicious.
Also, the whole set up is really, really pretty:
If you’re looking for something a little more low-key but still want all that beastly magic, make your way to Gaston’s Tavern. They’ve got warm cinnamon rolls, LeFou’s Brew, and hopefully the song “Gaston” playing on an endless loop.
Again, with all the cuteness and deliciousness:
Here’s to living our very best Disney lives, complete with all the yellow ball gowns, yummy grey stuff, and LeFou’s Brew. Mrs. Potts and Co. would approve.
If you typically avoid Walt Disney World in the summer because of the crowds and the heat, you might want to reconsider that decision because the Lime Dole Whip Margarita is here to save the day.
Beginning this month, Twitter users have flocked to the social media platform to rave about the resort’s newest alcoholic beverage offering that’s perfect for summer, served exclusively at the Polynesian Village Resort right near the Magic Kingdom.
Disney Food Blog reports that the drink — appropriately lime green in color — is available for purchase at the Polynesian’s Barefoot Pool Bar, while guests will also soon be able to snag it at the resort’s Oasis Bar and Grill. According to Delish, it sells for $12.50.
And instead of the Dole Whip dessert’s signature pineapple, the margarita leverages a Florida-worthy lime flavor instead, mixed with Corazón Blanco Tequila (salt or spicy chili-lime rim optional).
Guests at the Polynesian are already obsessed with the Lime Dole Whip Margarita, sharing their love for the new drink on Twitter since the resort began offering it earlier this month.
Another wrote, “The lime dole whip margarita might be my new favorite drink on property.”
For those unfamiliar, Dole Whip is the cult-favorite pineapple soft serve that debuted in Disney parks in the 1980s, and since then it has taken a multitude of forms, from doughnuts to cupcakes.View image on Twitter
Walt Disney World’s newest boozy offering joins the ranks of the recently unveiled “wine country brunch” at Disney Springs‘ Wine Bar George, which debuted late last month and includes a Dole Whip mimosa made with pineapple juice, moscato and prosecco.
The restaurant also serves their frozen Dole Whip Froscatos made with moscato, vodka and pineapple, along with Frosé (frozen rosé with vodka and strawberries) and Freaujolais (frozen Beaujolais wine with vodka and raspberry).
Wine Bar George‘s new wine country brunch menu — also including brioche French toast, steak and eggs, biscuits with sausage gravy and eggs Benedict — is available on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Disney is widely expected to unveil its upcoming streaming platform, Disney+, at its Investor Day presentation on April 11th. The company’s foray into streaming video comes as sites like Amazon, Apple, and Netflix have pumped billions of dollars into original content. Disney+ is meant to bring its own massive back catalog to viewers in one place.
Until recently, Disney has worked with Netflix to stream some of its biggest titles, including films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars franchises. Netflix has already canceled a slew of its collaborations with the studio; other movies and TV shows are beginning to disappear from the site.
We’ve rounded up everything in the works for Disney+ so far.
FILM
REMAKES
Disney is known for its original animated and live-action theatrical films, but it has a long history of direct-to-home release films as well, so there’s little surprise that the studio will be producing original films to stream. In recent years, Disney has been on a live-action remake tear with its classic animated films. Next up is a remake of Lady and the Tramp, which is slated for a Disney+ release. In a Business Insider interview, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the film was always intended for the streaming service, and it hasn’t been relegated there as an afterthought. It’ll star Justin Theroux and Tessa Thompson as the title characters, along with Yvette Nicole Brown, Benedict Wong, and Janelle Monáe.
Other live-action projects in the works include The Sword in the Stone, which will be directed by 28 Weeks Later directorJuan Carlos Fresnadillo. Peter Pan is also reportedly in the works from Pete’s Dragon directorDavid Lowery. The company is also apparently eyeing reboots of films like Three Men and a Baby, Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, Sister Act 3, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
ORIGINALS
Other films include Magic Camp, which is about a fictional magical summer camp from Mean Girls director Mark Waters; Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick as Santa Claus’ daughter, from Miss Congeniality director Marc Lawrence; Stargirl, an original film based on the book by Jerry Spinelli and starring Grace VanderWaal; Timmy Failure, which is based on the book series by Stephan Pastis and directed by Spotlight’s Tom McCarthy; and Togo, a story about the sled dog that brought badly needed medicine to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, which will star Willem Dafoe and be directed by Fast and the Furiousdirector Ericson Core.
Disney+ is going to be the most exciting in the TV space. It has announced a slew of shows from major franchises. One of the most anticipated projects is The Mandalorian, a live-action series about a Mandalorian gunslinger in the years after Return of the Jedi. It’ll star Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Prospect) as the titular character, along with Gina Carano, Werner Herzog, Carl Weathers, Nick Nolte, Emily Swallow, Giancarlo Esposito, and Omid Abtahi. Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi will direct episodes for the first season.
Likely coming sooner is a new season of The Clone Wars, which creator Dave Filoni announced at San Diego Comic-Con last year. The original series was abruptly canceled shortly after the Disney acquisition, and this final(?) season will wrap up some of the remaining storylines for the series.
MARVEL
Not to be outdone, Marvel Studios will also have a big presence on the platform, with a number of limited-series projects featuring characters from the MCU. One of the first ones mentioned was a series about Loki, which will apparently star Tom Hiddleston. There will also be a series about Vision and Scarlet Witch, which will be written by Captain Marvelwriter Jac Schaeffer, with Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen expected to reprise their roles. There’s another series about Falcon and Winter Soldier, and Malcolm Spellman (Empire) is tapped to write the series. There’s also a miniseries about Hawkeye, which will be a “jumping off point” for star Jeremy Renner to hand the role off to his character’s protégé, Kate Bishop.
Finally, Netflix canceled its entire lineup of Marvel superhero shows in recent months, including Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, andThe Punisher, as Disney+ plans began ramping up. While Disney hasn’t said whether it’ll pick up those shows, it did strongly hint that the characters would live on alongside those other limited shows, so maybe we’ll see another sort of limited series that brings those characters back.
OTHER PROJECTS
Fear not, Disney+ won’t just be Star Wars and Marvel properties. Disney has greenlit a handful of other shows, and a number of others are in development. The company is working on a spinoff of the Pixar film Monsters Inc., called Monsters at Work, which will bring back the voice cast of the original film and its prequel Monsters University. It will be set six months after Monsters, Inc.
One project Disney had intended for Disney+, a reboot of the John Cusack feature film High Fidelity, now starring Zoë Kravitz, is moving over to Hulu, which Disney owns a controlling interest in and where it seems poised to hand off some of its less family-friendly projects.
Finally, the service will be home to more than just entertainment programming: the company announced earlier today that it has signed a deal with Supper Club to produce a bunch of nonfiction projects, including Be Our Chef, a Disney-themed cooking show; Cinema Relics: Iconic Art of the Movies, which is about movie props and costumes; Encore!, which brings together former high-school musical castmates to perform encore performances of their original plays; Marvel’s Hero Project, which is about kids who make positive changes in their community; (Re)Connect, which delves into family issues; Rogue Trip, a travel program about overlooked destinations; Shop Class, which is about students who build cool things; and a documentary series about Disney’s Imagineering team. There’s also a series called Marvel’s 616 that will cover the interconnected nature of Marvel comics, and Earthkeepers, which is about conservationists. Finally, Disney is working on a documentary series called Ink & Paint, a Hidden Figures-style show about its forgotten female animators.
LittleBits, Disney and UC Davis announced this morning that they’ve joined forces for the launch of Snap the Gap. The non-profit program is designed to give girls a jumpstart into the ever-important world of STEM learning with an online program, littleBits starter pack and a one-year mentorship with a STEM professional.
Snap the Gap will begin as a one-year pilot program, focused on 15,000 10-year-old girls based in California. Participant and mentor recruitment will be managed by UC Davis, the school behind the California Million Women Mentors program.
The program certainly makes sense for the New York-based littleBits. The startup has long been focused on hooking young minds on STEM, both in and out of the classroom. “It was always part of littleBits’ mission to inspire more girls to get into STEM,” CEO Ayah Bdeir tells TechCrunch. “We’ve had lots of initiatives leading to it, but this is the biggest and boldest thing that we’ve done.”
Disney, meanwhile, has been a partner with littleBits since 2016, when the startup joined its tech accelerator. The move has resulted in a number of branded kits featuring IP like The Avengers and Star Wars. Ultimately, however, littleBits was forced to scale back that licensing in order to focus on its educational initiatives.
A wide-scale program like Snap the Gap, however, will afford the company the ability to continue appealing to young minds outside of the classroom. After the first year, the program will expand beyond California.
“Our goal is to add five new states every year, so that we can reach all of the United States by 2023,” Bdeir explains.
Walt Disney Co. is being sued over claims it underpays female employees.
Andrus Anderson LLP claims corporate policies, such as basing new employees’ wages on previous salaries, have a discriminatory effect on women.
The legal action, brought on behalf of two women, claims the company does not have an internal mechanism to ensure women are not paid less than male counterparts for the same work.
Disney denies the allegations calling them “without merit”.
According to the complaint, reported in Variety, financial analyst LaRonda Rasmussen raised a concern regarding her pay with Disney’s human resources after discovering six men who shared the same job title were being paid more than her.
It’s claimed the pay disparities ranged from $16,000 per year (£12,147) to $40,000 (£30,368).
She was given a $25,000 (£19,000) raise but alleges she still makes significantly less than her average male counterpart.
“Like other companies that operate without transparency, consistency, and accountability,” the legal papers – filed on behalf of Rasmussen and another woman, Karen Moore, claim, “Disney’s leadership tends to value male workers more than female workers.
“Taken together, Disney’s compensation policies, procedures and practices are not valid, job-related, or justified by business necessity.”
A spokesperson for Disney – which has offices, studios and parks around the world – responded: “The lawsuit is without merit and we will defend against it vigorously,”
Andrus Anderson LLP are similarly suing several other companies including Intel, Steptoe & Johnson and Farmers Insurance.
Image captionJohn Lasseter
Last year, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar creative officer John Lasseter was forced to step down in the wake of sexual assault allegations made by former employees.
Lasseter apologised over email for having distributed “unwanted hugs” to colleagues.
Following on from the #MeToo campaign, social media users adopted the tag #LoseLasseter.
By the time she was in her 20s, the documentary filmmaker and Disney heiress Abigail Disney was “embarrassed” by the family money she’d inherited, she told The Cut.
Disney worked hard to earn degrees from prestigious schools to “feel legitimate” and has donated more than $US70 million of her fortune to date.
Disney now tells her four children that money doesn’t make someone a good or bad person and encourages them “to earn it in reverse.”
Abigail Disney started feeling uneasy about her family’s wealth by the time she was in her 20s.
In a recent interview with The Cut, the 59-year-old granddaughter of Roy Disney, a Walt Disney Co. cofounder, said her parents’ wealth had reached new heights by the time she went off to college.
“So all of the sudden, we went from being comfortable, upper-middle-class people to suddenly my dad had a private jet,” Abigail Disney, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, said. “That’s when I feel that my dad really lost his way in life. And that’s why I feel hyperconscious about what wealth does to people. I lived in one family as a child, and then I didn’t even recognise the family as I got older.”
Disney told The Cut that the fortune she inherited would have made her “a billionaire if I wanted to be a billionaire,” but she instead “wore s—– clothes,” worked hard to hide her wealth from classmates and friends in graduate school, earned degrees from Yale, Stanford, and Columbia to “feel legitimate,” and began donating even more money than her parents had.
“I was embarrassed by it. I didn’t want anyone to know,” Disney said, adding that her family’s wealth bred deep self-doubt and an “inferiority complex around people who have actually earned their money.”
To date, Disney has donated about $US70 million and plans to keep “giving a lot of money away” until her death, she said. Disney and her husband, Pierre Hauser, are cofounders of the Daphne Foundation, which supports programs to end poverty in New York City. Her production company, Fork Films, focuses on documentaries about international social issues.
Still, Disney’s four children have adopted a familiar scepticism of wealth, which she’s attempted to wring from them, she said.
“I keep trying to tell them that money is morally neutral,” Disney said. “It does not, in and of itself, make you a bad person. It also does not, in and of itself, makes you a good person. You are who you are and the least important thing about you is what you have.” As Disney puts it, “you try to earn it in reverse.”
The billionaire Warren Buffett has shared similar advice with his children, who are set to inherit at least part of their father’s fortune. Buffett told his children to use their talents to pursue whatever path that will most benefit society, not the path they feel is expected of them or the one that’s most prestigious or lucrative, Forbes reported.
The billionaire Bill Gates agrees. “It’s not a favour to kids to have them have huge sums of wealth,” Gates said in 2016. “It distorts anything they might do, creating their own path.”
The next Disney on Ice production coming to New Zealand will feature a Moanasegment that for some shows will be presented in te reo Māori.
In August, Disney On Ice celebrates Mickey and Friends heads to Auckland’s Spark Arena, Hamilton’s Claudelands Arena and Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena.
Moana isn’t the only Disney icon to skate on ice in the show – fans can expect to see characters like Mickey Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, Dory, along with Inside Out and Toy Story pals at the event, too.
“Each section of the show was carefully selected to immerse families in an array of stories that they have grown to know and love,” says Nicole Feld of Disney on Ice.
“Because of its cultural significance in the Pacific and how beloved the character is here, this year, we are particularly delighted to bring the story of Moana to life for New Zealand audiences in te reo Māori for one performance in each city.”
The shows featuring te reo Māori will take place at 5:30pm on Sunday in each of the three cities.
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